ABSTRACT
Commitment to Islam is encapsulated by the declaration of the Kalima Shahada; however, the process of converting to Islam is a continuum with influences which build upon, and interrelate throughout each of Rambo’s stages of conversion. As such, the commitment stage comprises key influences from each of the stages of conversion discussed in prior chapters. The Consequences stage considers the effect of conversion on behaviour, attitudes and beliefs as converts practice their newly adopted faith. In making a commitment to Islam, converts are likely to experience feelings of relief or liberation and a change in behaviour, attitudes and worldview. The degree of a convert’s commitment to Islam will also determine the range of consequences resulting from conversion. A description of what Muslims in general are required to believe or do is dealt with comprehensively in the literature on Islam (Esposito 2005; Renard 1996; Robinson 1997); therefore, this chapter focuses on how influences presented in the earlier stages impact on what Islam means to converts, the degree of their commitment and the impact becoming a Muslim has on their identity. A convert’s commitment essentially represents the acceptance of Islam as a genuine means of resolving the range of crises they perceive as affecting their personal and social worlds, with commitment referring to a number of facets of convert behaviour.1 For Muslim converts in Papua New Guinea, the commitment stage represents a choice or turning point at which they are confronted with a decision about whether to officially become Muslim by declaring the Kalima Shahada. The commitment stage represents the decision threshold or ‘fulcrum of change’ that converts reach when they finally decide to switch religious affiliation to Islam (Rambo 1993: 124). Islamic conversions in PNG correlate with four of the interconnected dimensions in the commitment stage, which are: Decision Making; Rituals; Surrender; and Testimony (Rambo 1993: 124-141). Decision making is an integral part of the commitment stage and can often be an intense and confrontational period for the convert because he or she is vacillating between two religious worlds. Given the active role converts play in their own conversion it is not surprising that the decision to commit is based on a logical and rational decision-making process. Although there were differences in
perspectives, all converts interviewed described a rational and logical process behind their decision to convert to Islam and this was explained most succinctly by Abdul Aziz:
To us Islam is a religion of reasoning. We found that in Christianity what we were worshiping was unreasonable.
